Improvement in machines for bending timber



A. STEVENS 0N. Machines for Bending Timber.

N0.I54,099". Pat nted'Aug.H,,1874.

' WITNESSES. Q V H THE GRAPHIC CD. PHGTOLITHJQ 8 4! PARK PLACEJLY.

UNITED STATES PATENT .OFFIGE.

A GUsTUs STEVENSON, or KITTERY, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR BENDING TIMBER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 154,099, dated August 11, 1874; application filed June 27, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS STEVEN- SON, of Kittery, York county, in the State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful specification and represented in the drawings,

inwhich drawings- Figure 1 is a plan of a machine for bending wood with my improvements. Fig. 2 is an elevation of one side of the same. Fig. 3 shows a piece of wood in a protecting-strap, arranged for bending in one direction only.

In the above-mentioned drawings, A is the platform or table upon which the other parts are applied or fastened. To the table A I fasten the forms or molds B B, for bending wood in one direction only, and the mold (l to bend it in the opposite direction. These molds are made to give the desired form to the wood bent on them, and are provided with flanges D D, Fig. 2, to prevent the wood from spreading widthwise when it is being bent. These molds are fastened to the table A by bolts or screws E E, which pass through them and through the blocks F F, which support the molds a proper distance from the table, to allow the ropes'or chains with which the machine is worked to pass freely under the molds and also, to allow screw-clamps to be applied under the molds to clamp the wood fast to them as it is bent. 'In the outer ends of the molds B I put pulleys GG, for the ropes or chains to run over. The pulleys G are made narrower than the grooves in the molds, and put so farin from the ends that the metal protecting-strap when applied to that end of the mold, will not bind the pulley. To bend the ends of the piece of timber H in opposite directions, for the after-cants or timbers of a boat or vessel, I take a thin bar of metal, I, narrow enough to Work freely in the grooves in the molds, and fasten one end to the mold B with a screw and arm, the opposite end with a strong jaw, K, provided with a traversing plate, K, and an adjusting screw, L, to press the plate K against the end of the timber H. To the jaw K I apply a becket or ring,,M, and rope N, and lead it ate the windlass and wind up the rope to draw the timber H around the mold G, and bend it in the form desired. A thin bar of metal, I, is fastened to the mold G at O and is provided with a jaw-plate and screw, the same as the strap I, heretofore described, and arope, N from the ring M is led through the ring M, and by the pulleys G and G to the Windlass B, so that one end of II may be bent in one direction while the other end is bent in the opposite direction. The timber H is properly steamed, in a manner well known to workers in wood, and put into the. machine and bent while it is wet and hot, and may be held to the molds, until it is cooled and dried, by the ropes which bend it; or screw-clamps, W, Fig. 1, may be applied to hold it to the molds and the ropes released.

The power of this machine may be increased by using tackleblocks with two or more sheaves wherever great power is required.

The journal-boxes at the crank-ends of the shafts Q are supported by the screw bolts S S, and the nuts of these bolts may be turned to drop the endless screws 1? out of the gear P and allow the Windlass to be turned back to unwind the rope N. It is found to be a great advantage to have flanges on the molds to prevent the wood bent from spreading widthwise on the mold. To bend a piece of wood in one direction only on the molds B B, I use a protecting -strap, such as is shown in Fig. 3, and reeve a rope from each end, like N The holes T T in the table are for the purpose of adjusting the molds, so as to bend the wood more or less, as desired.

What Iclaim as invention and improvei 2. in a Wood-bending machine, in combine ments in the above described wood bending inch with the gears, the boxes of the endless machine is screws, made movable to release the endless 1. The combination of the endless screws screw from the gear, as described.

P gear P Windlass P, ropes or chainsN N AUGUSTUS STEVENSON.

pulleys G G, protecting-straps I I, molds B, I Witnesses:

B, and 0, all constructed as and for the pur- J. TYLER POWELL,

pose described. I v 7 J. DENNIS, Jr. 

